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Thomas Hawk posted a photo:
date stamped on slide, October 1959, handwritten on slide, "Chinatown, San Francisco"
Attack comes as Trump appears to retreat further from commitment to allow Ukraine to manufacture its own Patriot air defense interceptors. What we know on day 1,620
Kyiv was once again under attack by ballistic missiles early on Saturday as Donald Trump retreated further from a promise to let Ukraine manufacture its own Patriot air defence interceptors. At least four people were killed, Kyiv’s military administration said, while the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said more than a dozen were wounded in the Russian attack. More than a dozen explosions reverberated through the city, and residents were warned to stay in shelters.
The attack comes as Volodymyr Zelenskyy urges Trump and other US officials to help Ukraine gain permission from tech titan Elon Musk to use satellite internet service Starlink for guiding strikes inside Russia. Zelenskyy made the request directly to Trump during an Oval Office meeting this week, according to one person familiar with the matter. He also reportedly told lawmakers later on Capitol Hill that he wanted Starlink’s help. Trump did not commit to Zelenskyy’s request. Musk allows Starlink use within Ukraine, including Russian-occupied areas, but restricts it inside Russia.
During a cabinet meeting at Camp David, Trump told reporters that handing over the underlying Patriot technology was “a hard thing” to do. Ukraine’s Zelensky had met Trump earlier this week and said Trump had agreed to license the production of Patriot missiles to Ukraine. Asked whether he was ready to grant Kyiv a licence to build Patriots domestically – something he had suggested at a Nato summit in Turkey just this month – Trump said: “We have not agreed to that. We’re talking about it, but it’s a hard thing to give away that kind of technology.” Giving away the weapons carried its own risks, he added: “People that you give that technology [to], they can some day turn on you. You know that is possible.”
Several thousand Ukrainians rallied in central Kyiv on Friday, angry about Zelenskyy’s decision to oust the defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov. Fedorov is widely credited with driving military innovation during Ukraine’s war with Russia. But having taken charge of the wartime ministry in January, he was dismissed in a surprise government reshuffle in mid-July. Since then, Ukrainians have been gathering next to the presidential office, pushing for Fedorov to be reinstated as he refused to accept another government post.
Russia’s main grain lobby group warned on Friday that Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian ships and ports could shut down grain exports via the Black Sea, pushing up prices and causing hunger in Africa and the Middle East. Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, and Ukraine, also a large agricultural exporter, have been attacking each other’s facilities and vessels in the Black Sea area in recent weeks, driving wheat prices higher. The disruption to shipping in the Black Sea caused by Ukrainian attacks “poses a direct threat to global food security”, Russia’s Union of Grain Exporters and Producers told Reuters.
Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian online retailer Wildberries amount to “acts of terrorism” against civilians, affecting millions of people in Russia and other countries, the company’s founder and CEO, Tatyana Kim, complained on Friday. Ukraine has attacked more than a dozen Wildberries sites since 18 July in a bid to disrupt the operations of the company, a vendor to the Russian war effort and linchpin of Russia’s consumer economy.
Continue reading...Treasury secretary’s notepad, photographed by Reuters on Friday morning, prompts questions over US plans
During a cabinet meeting at Camp David on Friday, the US treasury secretary Scott Bessent carelessly revealed plans for the US to buy $5bn-$10bn in Japanese yen in a scribbled “to do” list left visible to a Reuters photographer.
The image, taken over Bessent’s shoulder during a portion of the meeting open to journalists, showed a Camp David notepad with the underscored words “To Do” followed by “Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil”.
Continue reading...
The United States Food and Drug Administration has never definitely identified the source of any cyclosporia outbreak. Not in thirty years. But the fix is upstream, and it is not mysterious: treat the water.
Fact based reporting on the current and past cyclosporia (aka poop lettuce) outbreaks from a subject matter expert. While I'm at it, here's an excellent article on the Christian nationalist beliefs of Taylor Farms' owners: Does the Bible Want You to Have Diarrhea? How Big Business in America Gets What It Wants — and Lets Everyone Else Pay the Price Cyclosporia previously on metafilter.
Fact based reporting on the current and past cyclosporia (aka poop lettuce) outbreaks from a subject matter expert. While I'm at it, here's an excellent article on the Christian nationalist beliefs of Taylor Farms' owners: Does the Bible Want You to Have Diarrhea? How Big Business in America Gets What It Wants — and Lets Everyone Else Pay the Price Cyclosporia previously on metafilter.
"What, you are likely inquiring unto the heavens, the fuck is this? And that's a fantastic question. What's going on here? Is that actually a full-motion-and-sound advertisement for a Spider-Man movie playing on the center stack screen of that new BMW? Why? How? Reading the comments, it seems that the ad appears when the car is started, with an option to play it or not being displayed on the screen. I suppose that's better than it autoplaying, but just barely. It's still the car taking your time and attention and control of your car's display to ask if you want to see a damn ad." More info on the Consumer Rights Wiki.
Toby Howard has added a photo to the pool:
Major record labels including Universal, Sony, and Warner have proposed excluding AI-generated songs from official charts unless they are "substantially human made," properly labeled, legally produced, and free from manipulation concerns. The Verge reports: The proposal goes quite a bit further than a labeling proposal put forth by the RIAA, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), SAG-AFTRA, and others. That would create a set of standardized labels for AI-generated and AI-assisted music. The labels' proposal would require songs be clearly labeled, but it would also keep them off international charts unless they met specific criteria, including being "substantially human made."
To be eligible, the songs would also have to respect the terms of service of whatever AI service was used, the model would have to have the rights to any data it was trained on, and "not raise stream or chart manipulation concerns." What sort of concerns and what constitutes "substantially human made" are currently vague. Sony Music, UMG, and Mom+Pop Music did not immediately respond to a request for clarification. The IFPI has thrown its weight behind the labels' proposal, though no charting organization has signaled any immediate plan to adopt the rules [...].
To be eligible, the songs would also have to respect the terms of service of whatever AI service was used, the model would have to have the rights to any data it was trained on, and "not raise stream or chart manipulation concerns." What sort of concerns and what constitutes "substantially human made" are currently vague. Sony Music, UMG, and Mom+Pop Music did not immediately respond to a request for clarification. The IFPI has thrown its weight behind the labels' proposal, though no charting organization has signaled any immediate plan to adopt the rules [...].
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
More than 81% of Australian children ages 10 to 15 were still using social media three months after the country's under-16 ban took effect, with roughly half saying platforms never checked their age. Reuters reports: In a study published on Friday, eSafety also found most children aged between 10 and 15 were using social media just as frequently in March as they had before the ban came into force on December 10 last year, while parental awareness of their habits decreased. Children's continued social media use took place even as account ownership declined to 42% from 52%, with "statistically significant" reductions across YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok in particular, the report said.
"Most under-16s who had social media accounts before commencement were able to either retain them or create new ones at the three-month mark, with social media platforms' failure to implement effective age assurance measures cited as the main reason," eSafety said in a statement [...] Before the ban, nearly 86% of children surveyed reported using at least one age-restricted platform. Three months later, that figure remained above 81%, the report said. About 58% of teenagers reported using social media daily or more often, barely down from roughly 60% before the ban, it found. The report showed minimal change in "sports and physical activity, arts and music, spending time with friends and family, and attendance at community events."
Around half the children who retained their accounts said platforms had not checked their age, the most common reason they were able to stay on the services. Others said their accounts listed them as aged 16 or older or that age-checking systems had incorrectly determined they were older. The findings broadly matched snapshot data eSafety published in late March.
"Most under-16s who had social media accounts before commencement were able to either retain them or create new ones at the three-month mark, with social media platforms' failure to implement effective age assurance measures cited as the main reason," eSafety said in a statement [...] Before the ban, nearly 86% of children surveyed reported using at least one age-restricted platform. Three months later, that figure remained above 81%, the report said. About 58% of teenagers reported using social media daily or more often, barely down from roughly 60% before the ban, it found. The report showed minimal change in "sports and physical activity, arts and music, spending time with friends and family, and attendance at community events."
Around half the children who retained their accounts said platforms had not checked their age, the most common reason they were able to stay on the services. Others said their accounts listed them as aged 16 or older or that age-checking systems had incorrectly determined they were older. The findings broadly matched snapshot data eSafety published in late March.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A collection of sketches from my notebook, all done with colored pencils. This practice allows for exploring traditional techniques and new artistic languages beyond the usual ones used in the field.
BILTHOVEN (ANP) - In de auto die vrijdagavond werd onderzocht aan de Melkweg in Bilthoven zijn geen gevaarlijke stoffen aangetroffen. Bewoners van de 40 tot 45 woningen die eerder uit voorzorg werden geëvacueerd, kunnen weer terug naar huis.
De politie meldde vrijdagavond dat zich in de auto mogelijk gevaarlijke stoffen bevonden. Een woordvoerder kon niet zeggen hoe de auto bij de autoriteiten in beeld was gekomen. Wel maakte de politie rond middernacht bekend dat eerder op de avond twee mannen waren aangehouden die mogelijk betrokken waren bij de zaak.
Among the statements at the center of the lawsuit were claims that Patel "attempted to overthrow the government," "planned January 6," was "guilty of sedition" and was a "Kremlin asset," as well as an allegation that Patel and his foundation paid people to "lie to Congress," according to the court filing. [...]
The order also referenced a post Stewartson made after the default judgment was entered, in which he called Patel a "Googly-eyed Kremlin bitch" and said Patel would have to return to Nevada for a trial where Stewartson would explain why he was "dead serious" when he called the FBI director a "chud." [...]
"✍️ PSA: Now that my case is settled, you are free to refer to @FBIDirectorKash as a 'chud,' a 'googly-eyed Kremlin bitch,' and a 'traitor' without fear of legal repercussions!" Stewartson wrote. "You're welcome! 😁👍🏼."
Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously. 
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